Documentary News

In Brooklyn, there’s a summer day-camp called the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls. That’s right. Girls from eight to eighteen learn to write songs, play instruments, and to “rock out.” Just like School of Rock — but for girls only. And indeed, music has such a wide appeal — why should rocking out be

Adele Horne is the filmmaker behind The Tailenders (POV 2006), which examines missionary activity, the loss of languages around the world and global capitalism in an unusual and essayistic way. Adele, winner of the “Truer Than Fiction” Award at the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards, writes in with her thoughts on the history of essay films.

The documentary winners of the 80th Annual Academy Awards were announced on Sunday night. Best Documentary Feature Taxi to the Dark Side Alex Gibney and Eva Orner Best Documentary Short Subject Freeheld Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth Reactions from the blogosphere are slowly trickling in. First, a shout-out to our own Tom Roston, who was

I laughed out loud when I read Tom’s February 15 Doc Soup column — a top 10 list of the “sexiest” documentaries of all time — the words “sexy” and “documentary” don’t often get mentioned in the same breath (ever?) around the POV office. I have to admit that I later worried that readers might

Earlier this month, I attended the Film Your Issue launch party at the United Nations. I first heard about Film Your Issue (FYI) from our partners at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. For the past five years we’ve worked with their American Democracy Project, to support them in accomplishing the goal of

After the hectic pace and hype of Sundance, it was a treat to go for the first time to the Big Sky Film Festival in Missoula. In fact, it was my first time in Montana — and I’ll be back. I was a juror in the documentary feature category along with the delightful Skylar Browing

Kurt Cobain would have turned 41 yesterday. The Nirvana frontman wasn’t even 30 years old when he died in 1994, but songs like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” were practically anthems for the 90s. And whether the timing was a deliberate act of commemoration or sheer coincidence, AJ Schnack‘s Kurt Cobain: About a Son (first released

San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood has undergone a timewarp transformation over the past few days for the filming of Milk, Gus Van Sant‘s new movie based on the life and times of Harvey Milk. Milk was a 1970s-era activist and politician who was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most remarkable people of the 20th century

This is the last of our live reports from the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Cynthia Lopez is POV/AmDoc’s Vice President. This festival marked her eighth year attending Sundance. What follows is her personal diary of the high and low points of last week’s Sundance Film Festival. You just never know what’s going to happen when

Environmental issues are a hot topic this election year. David Nanasi caught up with POV alum Judith Helfand (A Healthy Baby Girl, POV 1997 and True Lives 2005, and The Uprising of ’34, POV 1995) and Daniel B. Gold to hear more about what they’ve been doing to support their latest film, Everything’s Cool. Both